by Jason Clayworth, The Des Moines Register

by Jason Clayworth, The Des Moines Register

DES MOINES, Iowa -- An Iowa gun shop owner and a local gun rights organization are giving away a semiautomatic assault rifle as a protest to three bills introduced in the Iowa Legislature that would tighten the state's weapons laws.

The AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle is similar to weapons used in the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre in Connecticut and the 2002 Washington, D.C., sniper shootings.

An email from the group Iowa Gun Owners - which promotes itself as Iowa's only "no compromise gun rights organization" - sent to supporters says that giving away the semiautomatic assault rifle is intended "to help us grow the grassroots army needed to fight back against the gun grabbers."

Several Democratic Iowa lawmakers who support gun control efforts called the promotion irresponsible. They say their intent is to make changes in Iowa's laws so that criminal-history background checks are required for those who purchase firearms and to identify individuals with mental health issues who might harm themselves or others.

The Iowa Legislature passed a law in 2011 that limits the amount of discretion sheriffs have when someone applies for a permit to carry a weapon. Since then, Iowa has granted permits to carry weapons in public to at least 50 sex offenders and to blind people. State officials have also said that people who were the subjects of court orders prior to 2011 concerning serious mental illnesses are not always identified in background checks.

"There has not been a recent week without shootings somewhere," said Democratic state Rep. Bruce Hunter, after learning of the assault rifle giveaway by Iowa Gun Owners. "I find their lack of common sense and lack of good taste to be appalling right now."

Aaron Dorr, the organization's executive director, wrote the note to supporters that described lawmakers as "gun grabbers." He did not return multiple calls seeking comment from The Des Moines Register.

Jim Hirschberg, owner of the 2nd Amendment Shop in Lohrville, partnered with Iowa Gun Owners on the giveaway. Hirschberg noted that only people who are legally allowed to own such a gun qualify for the AR-15 rifle giveaway, which will be drawn randomly Feb. 28 via a CPA-certified process, according to the group's website. Proper background checks or documentation proving the winner can own the weapon will be required before the gun is transferred to a new owner, he said.

The AR-15 has a tag price of $725 at Hirschberg's shop. The gun comes with a 30-round magazine and is useful for target practicing and hunting vermin, Hirschberg said.

That style of gun has been a consistent hot seller in the last decade and "has completely rocketed out of sight in the last year," according to an article about what consumers are buying published last month in the Iowa Sportsman, a hunting, fishing and outdoorsman publication.

Hirschberg told the Register that the gun is the same type used in the D.C. sniper shootings, which left 10 people dead more than a decade ago, and in Newtown, Conn., in 2012, when shooter Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults.

Hirschberg said society and the media focus on the carnage of attacks with guns but rarely focus on the protection they provide and the problems they prevent, he said.

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